


This Marvelous Grief

by EVVS



Category: Dungeons and Daddies (Podcast)
Genre: Comfort, Except maybe in this fic, Fatherhood, Gen, Glenn is objectively the worst dad and knows it but will never admit to it, Set right about at Ep26&27, So pretty much directly after the second pyramid incident
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-29
Updated: 2020-08-29
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:55:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,298
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26172319
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EVVS/pseuds/EVVS
Summary: “But what if I can’t do it alone?”(Glenn could never start a support group for potential single fathers.)
Relationships: Glenn Close & Nicolas Close, Glenn Close & Ron Stampler, Ron Stampler & Terry Jr.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 17





	This Marvelous Grief

The fight had gone on long enough that Glenn didn’t care whether or not they used the Greek’s phalanx formation to take on Castle Ravenloft. He’d seen it in a documentary once, and of all the things to stick from it, battle formations could’ve ended up being somewhat helpful.

Instead, Henry and Darryl were working through details too intricate to matter without seeing the actual battleground. That… and Glenn was bored with the whole thing.

So he took his silent leave. He pulled out a joint that’d gotten a little wet in the rain back in Roqueporte, and God if that didn’t feel like that was a lifetime ago already…

Luckily, it’d dried out since then.

With a fresh high and some of the weight lifted from his shoulders, he stared at the gray skies for a long moment and tried to soak in the day’s events. If the other guys’ wives had made it here- Or if they themselves were dead-

No, now wasn’t a good time to get paranoid. They had some ass to kick later. Some purple robed ass.

He took a long puff. His exhale was even longer.

Glenn’s eyes returned to the world around him, and he spotted Ron with his legs tucked to his chest. He looked like he was drawing in the mud with a stick, like the pathetic kid at recess; not that Glenn had ever known what that was like. He weighed the risk and reward of _any_ interaction with Stampler and figured it’d been a rough day. If he ever needed help, it’d have been in his childhood, probably, but now wasn’t a bad time either.

After sauntering over and tilting his head more than a couple of times, Glenn had no idea what he was looking at other than possibly some sort of potato?

“Hey, Ron, whatcha drawin’ there, man?”

“It’s a cat.”

Glenn blinked a few times. Okay, so maybe the potato had eyes. “A cat?”

“…it’s- it’s all I know how to draw.”

“Oh. Okay.”

The potato received something that might be considered a tail.

With another suck on the joint and a sigh, Glenn settled onto the ground beside Ron. “Are you doin’ alright, man? I know with that pyramid stuff, that’s rough, buddy.”

Ron was silent for a long moment. Brow furrowed. Mustache also somehow furrowed. “I- I- I don’t want Samantha to get- to get hurt like that. Not in a pyramid, not in a Bass Pro Shop, not in a Fry’s-“

“I know, man, I know.” Glenn wondered if he’d overcommitted to something he wasn’t high enough for yet.

“And if Samantha’s gone, what’s Terry gonna do? Huh? He’s- He’s not gonna have a dad or a mom, and it’s just gonna be me and- and- and I don’t know how to take care of him. I can’t make Thanksgiving dinner or- or buy him an Xbox!”

Glenn raised an eyebrow but decided to not question that one.

“I don’t know how to tell you this, Glenn,” Ron started very softly and continued even softer, “but I don’t think I’m a very good step dad, even if I’m doing my best stepping up.”

His eyes remained fixed on the cat-potato throughout, but now Glenn could feel Ron’s eyes on him. Afraid of his own confession? Maybe. Just realizing Glenn’s not exactly sober? Also maybe. “Listen, Ron, all you gotta do is do your best. You got through to Terry Jr. even after you killed his fake dad, which is pretty good considering!”

The mustache betrayed a smile for maybe just a smidge of a second.

“And Ron, buddy, we’re gonna do our best to get the kids back and get you boys home to your ladies.” Glenn gave Ron’s shoulder a pat and immediately felt awkward for having done so. “Nothing’s gonna happen to Samantha and even on that _off-chance_ that it did, you’d be fine taking care of Terry Jr., y’kno? Think about how good you’d be at doing like, a- a fashion montage or something! But, y’kno, only pants maybe?”

The smile faded pretty much as quickly as it’d come. Sure, it was a stretch, but so far, Glenn hadn’t seen much of Ron’s actual parenting skills other than accidentally reminding Terry Jr. that Ron and his mom got it on occasionally. Not a great track record.

Glenn sighed and tried to figure out how to backpedal himself out of this one.

“But what if I can’t do it alone?”

Somehow, it felt like a dagger had been stuck in Glenn’s side.

“What if,” Ron continued in a shaky voice, “he just cries himself to sleep at night? And what if nothing I do matters? And what if I put his shoes on the wrong feet before practice? And how’m I gonna help him with his homework? He does calculus, Glenn! Calculus! I don’t even remember long division!”

This breath was less exasperated, more steadying. Glenn knew these questions. And more.

He had none of the answers for his own kid, let alone for Ron’s.

“I dunno, man.”

“H-How do you do it with- with Nick?”

There was the truth. And there was what Ron needed to hear. And then there was a lot of gray area in between that.

Glenn found himself staring at the sky again. The blunt was only half-forgotten. “Nick and I have a different relationship, y’kno? He kinda takes care of himself. ‘cause I’m on tour with the band a lot, right? So he’s mostly on his own.”

And it didn’t sound good, but it was the truth.

And then the truth got harder.

“But Terry’s a different kid. He’ll probably need you a lot more ‘cause he needs someone who cares about him and loves him. Y’kno, like you do. You just gotta help him through the tough times, man, like you did back in his shit dad’s castle thing.”

Ron’s brow and mustache furrowed again. “That sounds like a lot of work.”

“That’s parenting, I guess.”

“Yeah.”

Glenn looked down at his blunt and realized it’d gone out. He sighed and just doused it in the mud, no longer interested. “Hey, Ron, honestly? I’m not the best guy to give you advice on Terry Jr.”

“Yeah, I know.”

That felt like another dagger. Less in his side, more like in his thigh this time.

And then Ron returned the awkward pat, more awkward than the first time. “But Nick loves you a lot and likes hanging out with you, so that’s gotta mean you’re doin’ something right, bucko.”

Hearing that? Well, it eased some of the pain but none of the confusion at the usage of “bucko”.

“Yeah, thanks, Ron.”

“No problem.”

Luckily, Darryl’s voice cut off anything else in this horrendously awkward conversation. “Hey, Ron! Glenn! We gotta go, we’re gonna be late to Castle Ravenloft!”

Glenn looked over his shoulder and squinted at the two dads. Henry looked like he was packing the van with weapons as if his life depended on it. Which it maybe did. “Since when were we on a timetable to get there, man?”

“I made an itinerary!” Darryl held up a half sheet of paper that looked like it was ripped out of the Honda Odyssey’s owner’s manual.

“Yeesh, these guys,” groaned Glenn. As started to get to his feet, he realized Ron was standing right there over him with a hand outstretched, ready to help. With a half-sigh, Glenn took it and got to his feet.

The trunk slammed shut and Henry hollered, “Also, we’re going with the phalanx!”

“Yeesh, these guys,” mimicked Ron with a grimace that matched Glenn’s as they made their way back to the van.

Glenn rolled his eyes and mumbled, “We could’ve been on the road twenty minutes ago…”

**Author's Note:**

> I almost wanted to dig into the emotions Glenn would have at his own reaction to knowing he's a single father and that moment when he realized he'd have to raise Nick alone, but as Freddie's kinda talked about, Glenn just chills in this zone of not wanting to deal with that. So guess what he's doing! Not dealing with that!
> 
> Anyways, this was my first attempt, I tried to keep it in their voices even if it doesn't read very easily, but Ron's stuttering means a lot to me and I want it to always be represented as part of his character.
> 
> Title is from a song of the same name by Besides Daniel.
> 
> If you wanna hang, I'm around at skylarkevanson on tumblr.


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